Methods and means relating to atherosclerosis

#The present invention relates to methods for assessing and treating atherosclerosis and related conditions in an individual. Methods of the present invention are useful in the clinical diagnosis, prognosis, prophylaxis and therapy of atherosclerosis and related disorders.

#Auto-antibodies against such lipids as cholesterol [Swartz G. M., Jr., et al Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA (1988), 85, 1902-1906, Alving C. R. and Swartz G. M., Jr. Critical Reviews in Immunology (1991), 10, 441-453.], phospholipids [Alving C. R. Biochem. Soc. Trans. (1984), 12, 342-344.] and low density lipoproteins (LDL) are found in human plasma (Kabakov A. E. et al Clin. Immun. Immunopath. (1992), 63, 214-220, Mironova M et al Ibid. (1997), 85, 73-82.] and are involved in the development of atherosclerosis [Lopes-Virella M. F. and Virella G. Clin. Immun. Immunopath. (1994), 73, 155-167, Kiener P. A. et al Arterioscler. Thromb Vasc. Biol. (1995), 15, 990-999.].

#Separately, neither antibodies nor LDL are a pathogenic factor, only the immune complex of the two [Tertov V. V et al Atherosclerosis (1990), 81, 183-189, Orekhov A. N. et al Biochem. Biophys. Res. Comm. (1989), 162, 206-211.].

#FIG. 1 shows the results of an agglutination reaction between 100 μl of ovine Chlamydia and IgG extracted from human atherosclerotic lesion.

#FIG. 2 shows the dependence of ovine Chlamydia peroxidation on the concentration of human atherosclerotic lesion IgG. Concentration of Chlamydia was constant and the pH was 5.7.

#FIG. 3 shows the Michaelis-Menten kinetics of lipid peroxidation in ovine Chlamydia by 1.8 μg human atherosclerotic lesion IgG; apparent KM=13.3-16 μl of Chlamydia suspension; pH 5.7.

#Catalytic antibodies as described herein have been found to have various applications relating to atherosclerotic disorders, for example in methods for assessing, determining or detecting an atherosclerotic disorder in an individual. Such methods may be used to determine the presence or severity of an atherosclerotic disorder in an individual or to determine the risk that an individual will in the future suffer from an atherosclerotic disorder.

#The presence in the sample of an antibody which oxidises lipid is indicative of the individual having or suffering from an atherosclerotic disorder or being at risk of suffering from such a disorder in the future. The amount, level or activity of such antibodies is indicative of the severity of the disorder i.e. increased amounts and/or activity of antibody are indicative of increase severity of disorder. These methods are therefore suitable for determining the presence and/or severity of an atherosclerotic disorder in an individual.

#Such a method may, for example, comprise capturing an antibody from a serum sample, for example using an immobilised anti-idiotypic antibody, and determining the lipid oxidation activity of the captured antibody.